Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Combating Liberal Orthodoxy

Is it the top domestic issue for Republicans in 2008?

I haven't yet decided which Republican candidate to support; John McCain is the only serious candidate I've ruled out so far. But John Podhoretz summarizes what I most admire about Rudy Giuliani and why I'm inclined to support him:

Rudy may call himself pro-choice. He may have signed legislation mandating benefits to gay couples. He may have been a supporter of gun control. He may even have endorsed Mario Cuomo for governor in 1994. These are all things he's going to have to explain and answer for in Republican debates and the like.

But more than any other candidate in the race, Rudy Giuliani is a liberal-slayer. When he rejects liberal orthodoxy, which he does often, he doesn't just oppose it. He goes to war with it - total, unconditional war.

He spent his political career chewing up liberal orthodoxy and spitting it out - and I think that somehow, in some way, voters in Oklahoma and Kansas get that about him even without knowing the specifics.

His success in turning New York around wasn't merely a matter of changing policies. He had to sustain those policies when they came under deliberate, systematic and unrelenting assault by the city's liberal elite.

(My emphasis.)

The longer liberalism predominates our political culture, the less likely it is that we'll be able defeat our Islamic enemies. As such, the willingness to tenaciously combat prevailing liberal orthodoxy among our political and media elite just might be, for me, the most important trait in a candidate.